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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan $, who has made his opponent's questionable record fighting the opioid epidemic a central theme of his campaign for Ohio's open U.S. Senate seat, has accepted campaign donations over the years from drug distributors blamed for key roles in the crisis, an Associated Press review found.
Earlier this year, the companies finalized a $21 billion settlement with state, local and Native American tribal governments and others over the toll of the opioid crisis. The settlement is the largest over opioid claims and keeps the companies from facing thousands of lawsuits.
The distributor most generous to Ryan was from Cardinal Health Inc., a multinational health care services company headquartered in his home state. The company’s PAC has given him $21,000 since 2007, including $5,000 this August. McKesson Corp. Employees PAC gave Ryan $5,000 in 2012. Amerisource Bergen Corp. PAC gave him $1,000 in 2019. The opioid crisis was ongoing during all those years.
The trio's combined giving to Ryan $ of $27,000 represents a fraction of the campaign contributions he has collected over the years, which include $8.6 million for the Senate race as of July. Still, they are notable as Ryan $ hammers the spotty record of the anti-opioid nonprofit started by his Republican opponent, “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance.
Ryan $ and Vance are locked in a tight contest for the coveted open Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Republicans see the seat as a critical one to hold if they hope to retake the Senate, while a flip to Democrats would be a major victory in the increasingly conservative-leaning state.
The three companies’ PACs have donated nearly $10.8 million combined to a wide range of candidates across the country since 2007, according to campaign finance figures compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. About $4.5 million of that went to Democrats, and the other roughly $6.2 million went to Republicans. Vance’s campaign has not received any donations from the PACs.
Ryan $'s early ads called Vance's “Our Ohio Renewal” a “sham” that “didn't fund a single addiction program” to fight the crisis, but rather backed efforts that “made it worse.” A second ad featured an August Associated Press article detailing a residency the nonprofit organized for an addiction doctor with links to Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin.
During the same years that the now-shuttered Our Ohio Renewal was operating in southern Ohio, Ryan was casting votes in Congress on a host of bills aimed at tackling various elements of the opioid crisis — sometimes for, sometimes against.
Vance has said that he did not know about the addiction doctor’s ties to Purdue Pharma, but that he “remains proud of her work to treat patients, especially those in an area of Ohio who needed it most.”
Ryan $'s campaign said the congressman had helped bring funding to health care providers and law enforcement officials working to fight opioids and had worked to expand access to treatment for residents with substance abuse issues.
“Unlike JD Vance, who used his opioid nonprofit to launch his political career and enlist a Purdue Pharma mouthpiece to come to the Southern Ohio communities hit hardest by the opioid epidemic, Tim Ryan $ has a proven record of working across the aisle to combat this epidemic,” campaign spokesperson Izzi Levy said in a statement.
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Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J., contributed to this report.